Ruben Yttergård Jenssen

Tromsø

2006 season

After playing for Tromsø's youth team, Jenssen was promoted to the first-team squad ahead of the 2006 season. He signed a four-year contract with the club in April 2006, and Steinar Nilsen, Tromsø's director of sports, stated that Jenssen was one of the most talented footballers hailing from Tromsø ever. Tromsø's head coach Ivar Morten Normark claimed that the signing of Jenssen was better for the development of young players from Northern Norway, than if the club had signed Ronaldinho. Jenssen had been playing as a central midfielder during his youth, but was retrained as a left wing in 2006. He made his debut for Tromsø in the first match of the 2006 Tippeligaen against Molde on 9 April 2006. Despite starting the first match of the season, Jenssen did not play regularly for the Tromsø-team that battled against relegation in 2006. He made four more appearances as a substitute in the league, and played one match in the Norwegian Cup. Following Ole Martin Årst's transfer from Standard Liège to Tromsø in 2006, the Belgium club had secured an option to sign Jenssen free of charge, and he was in 2006 offered a contract with the club's academy. Jenssen rejected this offer. He was again offered a one-year contract with Standard in June 2007, this time with the club's first team, but Jenssen also turned this offer down.

2007 season

With Steinar Nilsen as head coach in the 2007 season, Jenssen made 15 appearances in the league, all…

Jenssen first represented Norway at the under-16 level, and soon became a regular on Norwegian youth teams. He played 21 matches and scored two goals from under-16 level to under-19 level, and became the captain of the under-21 team in 2009. He played a total of 13 matches for the under-21 team. In May 2010, Jenssen was selected for the Norwegian national team for the first time along with Jonathan Parr, as a replacement for Bjørn Helge Riise and John Arne Riise who attended Bjørn Helge's wedding. Jenssen made his debut for Norway when he started the match against Montenegro and played for 57 minutes. Parr and Jenssen were originally returning to the under-21 for a match against Finland U21 after the Montenegro-match, but they both returned to their clubs with injuries. Jenssen has since then been a regular in Egil Olsen's national team, and he has been a regular starter since he started the World Cup qualifier against Slovenia on 11 September 2012. Jenssen was awarded the Gold Watch after his 25th cap against Macedonia on 11 June 2013, and became the eighth footballer from Northern Norway to reach that milestone. Jenssen's last game for the national team came in a 3–0 loss against Germany in September 2016.

Born in Tromsø, Jenssen played for Fløya during his youth. His family moved to Sogn og Fjordane when his father, Truls Jenssen, was head coach of Sogndal IL during the 1997 season, and the nine-year-old played for a team in Sogndal's youth department. Jenssen's mother, Ann-Torild, who played basketball for Tromsø Basketballklubb (now Tromsø Storm) did not want him to play football and wanted him to try out gymnastics and basketball instead. After he played basketball for a year when he was 13, he asked his mother if he could quit.

Jenssen comes from a family of footballers; his father Truls Jenssen, is a former Tromsø player and he has also coached Sogndal, Tromsdalen and Tromsø. Jenssen's youngest brother Ulrik Yttergård Jenssen is a fellow professional footballer, while their brother Markus won the Norwegian Youth Cup with Tromsø. Jenssen married his girlfriend of eight years, Maria Evertsen Berg, in December 2012. His best man was Christer Johnsgård, a former footballer, who also worked at the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. The pair have two sons together.